These sample scans are from the original record. You will get scans of the full pages or articles where the surname you searched for has been found.

Your web browser may prevent the sample windows from opening; in this case please change your browser settings to allow pop-up windows from this site.

Hampshire and Surrey clerks, clerics, monks and clergy
(1378)Ordinations as acolytes, subdeacons, deacons and priests, from the register of bishop William de Wykeham of Winchester. Winchester diocese covered Hampshire and Surrey; the ordinations also attracted many persons from distant dioceses bearing letters dimissory from their ordinaries, and these are duly noted in the text. Many of these clerks would not go on to obtain benefices and remain celibate. The lists of subdeacons, deacons and priests state the clerks' respective titles, i. e., give the names of the person or religious house undertaking to support them. Monks and friars are indicated ('f.' = brother). The acolyte lists usually give parish of origin or title. The sample scan is from 1404.

COUKE. Cost: US$12.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Landowners and tenants in Somerset
(1345-1485)Inquisitions ad quod damnum were held by the appropriate sheriff or escheator (or other officer in whose bailiwick the matter in question might lie) to investigate cases in which the royal or public interest might be damaged by proposed alienation or settlement of land (especially alienation to religious uses, into mortmain). The key findings from these inquisitions were as to the tenure of the land and the service due from it; its yearly value; the lands remaining to the grantor, and whether they sufficed to discharge all duties and customs due from him; and whether he can still be put upon juries, assizes and recognitions, so that the country be not burdened by his withdrawal from them. Generally speaking, this process had the makings of a system of licensing such alienations, and raising money in proportion to the valuations. Equally, there are many items that deal with subjects such as the closing of public roads, the felling or inclosing of woods, or the proposed grant of liberties or immunities. A calendar of these inquisitions from the 19th year of the reign of king Edward III to the 2nd year of Richard III was prepared by the Public Record Office and published in 1906. We have now indexed this calendar by surname and county. Most of the individuals appearing in the calendar are either pious individuals seeking to make grants to religious bodies for the sake of their souls; or landowners securing the disposition and settling of their real estate. But some other names do appear - tenants, trustees, chaplains and clerks.

COUKE. Cost: US$12.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Murderers sheltering in Durham Cathedral: and their victims
(1464-1524)Criminals could evade pursuit by claiming sanctuary in Durham Cathedral. Persons who took refuge fled to the north door of the cathedral, and knocked for admission. There were two chambers over the door in which men slept, for the purpose of admitting fugitives at any hour of the night. As soon as anyone was so admitted, the Galilee bell was immediately tolled, to give notice that someone had taken sanctuary. The offender was required to declare before witnesses the nature of his offence, and to toll a bell in token of his demanding the privilege of sanctuary. He was then provided with a gown of black cloth with a yellow cross, called St Cuthbert's Cross, upon the left shoulder. A grate was provided near the south door to sleep upon, and for 37 days sufficient provisions and bedding were provided. But within 40 days he had to appear before the coroner, clothed in sackcloth, and be branded on his right hand with the sign of the letter A. This signified that he was swearing to abjure the realm: he was then free to leave the country unhindered. The petitions for immunity were entered in the diocesan registers, usually with the marginal note 'Peticio Immunitatis': those from 18 June 1464 to 10 September 1524 (the privilege was finally abolished in 1624) were edited and printed by the Surtees Society in 1837 under the title Sanctuarium Dunelmense. Some of the criminals came from a considerable distance: the great majority were murderers or homicides. Each entry usually gives full name, original address, (often) trade, a brief description of the crime, often with date, and usually the name of the victim, as well as the witnesses to the petition. This index covers all the surnames given.

COUKE. Cost: US$8.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Tradesmen of York
(1272-1558)No man or woman could trade in the city of York without having obtained 'freedom' of the city.Their names were recorded on the 'Freemen's Roll', or Register of the Freemen of the City of York, which contains about 19,900 names for this period. A list of names was prepared for each year, the year being here reckoned as starting at Michaelmas (29 September) until 1373, and thence at Candlemas (2 February). Each annual list starts with the name of the mayor and the camerarii or chamberlains. The chamberlains were freemen charged with the duty of receiving the fees of the new freemen; of seeing that only freemen traded in the city; and of preparing this roll, which was compiled from the names on their own account books from the receipts for the fees. There are three groups of freemen: those who obtained freedom after serving out an apprenticeship to a freeman; the children of freemen; and those who claimed freedom by 'redemption', i. e. by purchase or gift from the Mayor and Court of Aldermen.

COUKE. Cost: US$4.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

York Will Calendar
(1660-1665)The diocese of York comprised most of Yorkshire, and Nottinghamshire: the York Exchequer court was the ordinary probate jurisdiction for the Yorkshire part of the diocese, but some wills from Nottinghamshire and other parts of the province of York were also proved there. Dr Francis Collins compiled this index to the wills in the York registry proved from 1660 to 1665. The date of the probate precedes the name of the testator: during the period covered by the volume the dates of probate are very rarely given in the registers - they were therefore supplied from the Act Books. However, the Act Book for Ainsty, City and Craven deaneries is missing for this period, and in those cases no date could be given. In a very few instances (marked with an asterisk) in these deaneries in which the date has been supplied it has been taken from the registers. Additional matter from the Act Books is given within square brackets. Testators' names are given in full, surname first; then parish or place of abode, and in some cases occupation; then date of the will itself; and volume and folio number in the probate register. Where a place of burial, or intended burial, was indicated, that is also added, with the word 'bur.', within round brackets. All wills between 1652 and 1660 were proved in London; in practice, many Yorkshire wills had remained unproved at the date that the York Exchequer probate court was restored, and so there is in this list a large number of wills dating back through the 1650s.

COUKE. Cost: US$4.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Inhabitants of Manchester, and travellers
(1633-1666)The constables' accounts of the manor of Manchester in Lancashire from 1633 to 1647 were edited by J. P. Earwaker and published in 1892. The accounts largely consist of details of disbursements by the constables, and as such include payments to paupers and soldiers with passes to help them on their journeys to and from other parts of the country. Earwaker added nine 'important appendices' to the work: 1. Disbursements and Receipts during the Plague of Manchester, 1605-6 and 1606 (from State Papers Domestic in the Public Record Office); 2. List of the Books of Assessment, Charity Money Accounts, &c., now in the Possession of the Corporation; 3. List of the Inhabitants of Manchester in 1648 (pages 181 to 201); 4. List of the Inhabitants of Manchester in 1651 (202-221); 5. Disbursements of the Constables in 1651-2; 6. List of the Inhabitants of Manchester assessed in 1659 (225-246); 7. A Second List of the Inhabitants of Manchester in 1659 (247-260); 8. List of the Inhabitants of Manchester assessed in 1666 (261-283); and 9. List of Uncommon, Obsolete, and Dialect Words to be found in the Preceding Pages.

COUKE. Cost: US$8.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Sailors on board H. M. S. Vanguard
(1797-1798)His Majesty's ship the Vanguard (Admiral Horatio Nelson's flagship) took part in the destruction of the French fleet in Aboukir Bay at the mouth of the Nile ('the Battle of the Nile') on the evening of the 1st and morning of the 2nd August 1798. This is the muster book for 1 July to 31 August 1798: being a continuation book in a series covering wages and victualling from December 1797, it also includes the names of some men who had died, deserted or been discharged from the ship from then to July 1798. Of the ship's complement of 590, this index covers the sailors, volunteers, and boys, as well as the supernumeraries: but not the marines, or the French prisoners taken after the battle. Usually each man's entry gives his birthplace, and also his age on entering the ship.